spring 2021
Ty Mattson is the founder and creative director of Mattson Creative, a Southern California based branding agency specializing in illustrative design for the entertainment and licensed consumer products industry. He proudly leads an incredibly talented design team whose award-winning work can be seen for a wide variety of clients such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Disney, FAO Schwarz, IKEA, Netflix, Target and Universal Studios, to name a few.
His work has appeared in numerous professional publications and has been recognized for excellence by the leading design competitions including the One Show and Communication Arts.
Tim Belonax is currently a Design Director at Pinterest, working on projects that help people understand what Pinterest is and why it matters to them. In early 2019 he launched Double Issue with Aaron Eske, Carrie Taffel, and Bosco Hernández. Dave Eggers called the magazine “bursting with hope and rage and a blinding sort of optimism.” Previously, Tim was a Design Lead at Airbnb and a Principal Designer at Facebook’s Analog Research Lab. He’s was an Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts for seven years and served on the San Francisco Center for the Book and AIGA SF boards.
He holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and his design work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Paula Cruz is a designer witch + badass illustrator. ✨ Currently based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Paula has a bachelor's degree from EBA/UFRJ and a master's degree in Graphic Design from PUC-Rio, where she studied hybrid publications and new ways of reading. She lived for a year in the Netherlands to study dutch typography, illustration, and graphic design at the Willem de Kooning Academie. She's been a teacher of graphic design and illustration at Crehana and Miami Ad School since 2019.
She's the founder of Farpa Editora. While studying and working, Paula develops personal projects that unite design, text, and research, such as books, posters, and illustrated stories.
Antoine Vidal de La Blache is a French digital designer and amateur photographer based in Brooklyn. He currently works for Work&Co, helping brands design and ship digital products at scales, such as Epic Games Store, Politico, Youtube TV, and Equinox.
In the past, he has also worked for French creative studios Immersive Garden and Octave&Octave.
Gabrielle Smith is a multidisciplinary designer and cultural producer. She currently works for CNN International’s CNN International Visual News team and has created work for the likes of Channel 4, Adidas, and Tate Britain. Gabrielle is also the founder of the:nublk, an award-winning digital platform dedicated to highlighting stories of the Black diaspora through art, film, conversation, and collaboration. Gabrielle is known for her nuanced visual approaches by shining a light on the overlooked background stories, trends, and movements that need more attention in the world at large.
She seeks to continue to extend this mandate through the work she creates.
Zipeng Zhu is a Chinese-born designer, art director, illustrator, and animator in New York City who wants to make every day a razzle-dazzle musical. His clients include Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Netflix,, The New Yorker, Fox, CNN, Chobani, and Samsung. After he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has worked at Pentagram Design and Sagmeister & Walsh. He was one of the Art Directors Club Young Guns 13 winners and has been recognized as Print magazine’s New Visual Artist and The One Show Young Ones. His work has been exhibited all over the world including New York, Barcelona, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, and other major museums and institutions.
He started his own creative studio Dazzle to make everything dazzling.